ALLOWING children to visit open spaces is still not enough to boost consumption spending but vaccination progress will allow more businesses to stay open, according to economic managers.
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua told the BusinessMirror on Monday that allowing children to go to open spaces is a step toward improving the overall well-being of children and families.
Chua noted that this policy, recently approved by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), will also allow parents to increase their productivity.
“It will take higher confidence to increase consumption, which means accelerating vaccine deployment and ensuring that the health system is adequate for those who get very sick,” Chua, however, told this newspaper.
In a briefing on Monday, Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon M. Lopez agreed and said vaccination is the way to economic recovery.
This is why he welcomed the initiative of some stores and local governments to declare that the staff of establishments have received anti-Covid-19 vaccines.
Lopez said by declaring that their staff is 100-percent vaccinated against Covid, an establishment would be able to allay the fears of consumers and encourage them to buy from these stores.
“This eases the anxiety of our people. And of course, this is a big boost to our economic recovery, for which we are starting to see some signals now. But of course, we have to do it at the City, Municipality level,” Lopez said.
Earlier, the DTI encouraged stores to apply for safety seal certification to enable them to expand their capacity.
The safety seal allows establishments to expand their operating capacity to around 30 percent. This is 10 percentage points higher than the current minimum of 20 percent under the IATF guidelines.
Open spaces
In a briefing on Monday, San Juan Mayor Francis Zamora said the Metro Manila Council (MMC) met on Sunday and agreed to draft a resolution on the areas where children will be allowed.
Zamora said the MMC agreed that cities will be the ones to determine which parks and open areas children can go to.
“This is just a proposal now. We will have to discuss further with other Mayors as to what will become policy. But of course, the IATF has released guidelines on that, so we will just have to reconcile whatever guidelines they have versus the Metro Manila Council guidelines,” Zamora said.
He added that they will follow “whatever is the policy of the national government. We just need to ensure proper implementation in our cities,” he added.
In January, Chua said imposing mobility restrictions on children affects the economy’s ability to recover from the pandemic.
He noted that preventing families, including children, from leaving their homes during the pandemic significantly affected the country’s consumption spending.
Consumption spending is the primary driver of the Philippine economy, accounting for about 70 percent of economic growth.
Chua said the economy is strong enough to recover if the government allows it to. He also reiterated the need for sufficient and safe public transport as well as the need to boost demand by allowing family activities with strict enforcement of minimum health standards.